The troubled Vince Young

Here's the script for the latest Sports @ Large essay, which aired in the customary Monday at 5:30 p.m. on WYPR-FM in Baltimore.

In the American sports culture, there are few crimes as heinous as being sensitive to criticism. And for football players, who are masculinity personified in the American ethos, the inability to brush off boos and brickbats is, in the minds of many, grounds for turning in their guy membership card, the one that ascribes honor and machismo and valor to the holder.

Until the last offseason, Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young was fully vested in the Man’s Man Society. In college, he marched the Texas Longhorns down the field twice in the final minutes of the 2006 Rose Bowl against defending BCS champion Southern California.

Young scrambled into the end zone on each drive to give Texas what passes for a national title. He was propelled into the No.3 slot of the 2006 draft, to the Titans. In his rookie season, Young went to the Pro Bowl all-star game and was named Rookie of the Year. Last year, Young became only the 11th quarterback taken in one of the first two rounds over the past 25 seasons to lead his team to the playoffs.

However, Young has been anything but smooth in Nashville, throwing erratically at times, and proving to be occasionally injury-prone. Those are hardly crimes, but the resulting criticism from fans and the media threw Young for a loop. The quarterback reportedly considered retirement in the offseason, but ultimately decided to return.

Move ahead to last Sunday, in the Titans season opener against Jacksonville. Young threw two interceptions and was roundly booed by the home crowd, which apparently bothered him so that he initially declined to go back into the game. He eventually did, but sprained a ligament in his left knee which will keep him out of action for 2 to 4 weeks.

The next day, Young missed a scheduled MRI test on his knee, this after his mother, Felicia, was quoted in the local paper saying that her son was tired of the negativity and that he was quote hurting inside and out, end quote. The team apparently dispatched a psychologist to Young’s house.

Later that day, Titans coach Jeff Fisher, told that Young was in an emotional state and had left home without his cell phone, but with an unarmed gun, called authorities. The police sent an unmarked SWAT unit out and put crisis negotiators on call, only to find that Young had gone to a friend’s house to watch Monday Night Football.

By Thursday, Young had declared that he just needed a day and a half to get through a rough patch and to learn how to deal with adversity, saying, quote, When it happens again, I’ll know how to handle it. I just want everyone in the world to know I am fine, unquote.

Does Vince Young need to do a little growing up? Sure, but then, so do we who are sports fans. We need to advance past hero worship of people in uniforms and start seeing athletes as mere flesh and blood humans. Humans, who laugh in triumph, but occasionally mourn, and, yes, cry in failure. After all, the measure of a person is not how they expend their feelings, but what they do once the emotion of the moment clears.